A Feminist Symbol

All this hassle in regard to naming something in favor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is most interesting, and, in order to prove we’re not a bunch of racists, surely we’ll end up with some kind of memorial to him--though I’m not sure that will prove anything much.

But since the symbol seems to be so very important I’m perturbed that there is no mention of a memorial to those women who really began the whole civil rights movement back in 1848. I want a memorial to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who organized the first Women’s Rights Conference in that year as an outgrowth of the abolitionist movement, or to her cohort, Lucretia Mott. I’d even go along with something to Susan B. Anthony, who is so much better known. But for the sake of civil rights in our nation, these women were into the cause a century before King and eventually obtained the vote for more than 50% of the people!

Why do our female mayor and councilwomen not ask for a symbol of the original civil rights leaders so we can prove our city is also not sexist? Or would that prove anything either?

DODY M. EILER

San Diego